“Lobbying Decisions and the Health Reform Battle” Kenneth Goldstein

Failure of the Clinton Plan? (73) Public Opinion and Clinton Plan: There was a considerable amount of public support for the Clinton Health Care Plan. Support: Oppose: Gallup (09/24/93): 59% 33% ABC/Wash Post:67% 20% Passage of Bill: “Seemed Inevitable” Year Later: Plan Was Dead: What Happened? …

Explaining Defeat of Clinton Plan (73) One Theory: Lobbyists? The defeat of the Clinton Plan is often seen as example of power of interest groups. Lobbying Effort: Grassroots Strategy: Opposition to the Clinton Plan was a highly organized “grassroots” campaign. How Influential Were Interest Groups? (73)

Explaining Defeat of Clinton Plan (77) Mobilization Theory: The goal of any “grassroots” lobbying effort is to properly frame an issue, and then identity which constituencies are most likely to influence legislative behavior.

Nature of Business Opposition: Grassroots Business Lobbyists: Grassroots Strategy Targeted Mail, and Phone Bank aimed at sympathetic and undecided members of Congress. Goal: Legislative, not Public (75, 77) Influence Legislative, rather than Public Opinion/Behavior Strategy: “Politically Useful Information” (76) Provide “politically useful information” to targeted legislatures. That is information designed to convey what the political consequences would be of passing of defeating the Clinton Plan. Plan: Identify constituencies within targeted members’ districts.

Business Strategy: 1) Messaging 2) Targeting a. Legislative: Committees b. Constituency: Districts 3) Mobilization

Messaging (77) Getting the Right Message: Messaging was key. Opponents had to change the message from: Health Care for Middle-Class to Cutting Jobs and Reduced Choice Elements of the Message: Employer Mandates Price Controls Mandatory Alliances Physician Choice …

Targeting (78) Legislative: Committees Four Committees have jurisdiction over Health Care legislation: House:Senate: Ways and MeansFinance Energy and CommerceLabor and Human Resources Education and Labor …

Mobilization Theory: District Targeting Targets: Important and Persuadable Committees Mobilization theory predicts that any grassroots lobbying would start by identifying which committees or legislators are both most important and persuadable, and therefore need to be targeted by mobilized, and influential constituents. …

Mobilization Theory: District Targeting Important and Persuadable Committees: Determined by whether or not they sent political “cues,” and by the likelihood they could be persuaded. Important: Unimportant: House Energy and CommerceHouse Education and Labor House Ways and MeansSenate Labor and Human Resources Senate Finance …

Determining Constituency: Targeting Criteria Constituency: Targeting Districts were targeted based on the “importance” of the Committees. Goal: Goal is to mobilize constituents most likely to influence legislative behavior in target districts. Defining Influence: Constituents that have: 1) Greater Resources 2) More Personal Contact with Member

Finding Influential People: Business Groups: Leverage Strategy Groups opposed to the Clinton Plan targeted those they leverage over: 1) Employees 2) Suppliers

Finding Influential People: Examples: IBM, Mobil, DuPont, Xerox Each used a variety of strategies to mobilize their employees, including internal mail, , voice mail. Big PHARMA: Targeted retired employees and stockholders: mobilized a network of 19 thousand people.

Finding Influential People: GAC Teams: Guardian Advisory Council Made up of five to ten influential people (business leaders, personal friends) in targeted districts. “When a member…goes home, they spend ninety percent of their time with one percent of the pop. We wanted that one percent to be people who were going to communicate our message.”